I spent a lot of years not knowing how much I love cauliflower, and I must say I regret that. But now that I know, I just can’t seemed to get enough. Pureed cauliflower with goat cheese has been a favorite of ours for quite some time now, but we’ve also been thrilled with spicy cauliflower soup and my “magical” cauli-rice. This week I had some leftover blue cheese and a whole head of cauliflower that I bought for a get together and didn’t end up needing. So I decided to combine the two. I thought about trying to make a cauliflower soup with blue cheese, which I’m sure would have been great, but in the end I decided to keep it simple by roasting the vegetable with balsamic vinegar and topping it with the cheese.

Let me just brag – this was fantastic. The combination of flavors was both unexpected and incredibly interesting. Cauliflower, when roasted, takes on a nutty aroma, and gets additional caramelization from the sweet balsamic vinegar. The tangy cheese brings a welcome contrast to the sweet and earthy flavors. I couldn’t get enough! I served this along with some simple grilled chicken – just olive oil and herbs de provence – because I really wanted to focus on the all the wonderful flavors in this simple vegetable side dish. I still have some cheese leftover, so I can’t wait to make this again next week!

Preheat oven to 400F. Toss cauliflower in olive oil and arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet. Roast for about 18 minutes, then remove from oven. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar, season with salt and pepper, and toss to distribute. Sprinkle with cheese and returns to oven for another 5-10 minutes. If desired, turn on broiler at the end to finish browning to your liking.

I love roasted cauliflower! I always roast it up with olive oil, cloves of garlic, salt and pepper. Then when it comes out I sprinkle it with lemon juice and freshly chopped parsley or basil. So good and light! I love the blue cheese addition! I’m going to have to give that a shot.

Literally just made an almost identical dish. It almost didn’t make it to the oven because it was so good, even: uncooked. The only difference is that I used 1/4 cup chopped red onion and a generous sprinkling of herbes de Provence, while not using salt or pepper. This is most assuredly a new favorite of mine. I was going to post my recipe on my blog but I do believe that I’ll refrain from doing so now. We must cook to the beat of the same drum. 🙂